The leader of the NDP says they voted for the budget because some initiatives needed to be rolled out right away, but she’s dubious about the Liberals intentions regarding collaboration.

The Liberals gained the support of the NDP, and Independent MHA, Paul Lane, giving them the votes they needed to pass the budget, despite the PCs voting against it.

Alison Coffin says people are waiting on things like the Autism Action Plan, insulin pump coverage, and removal of HST on insurance.

She says it’s also important to show stability.

Coffin says it’s important for bond rating agencies but also for businesses and individuals in the province trying to decide if they want to try for a new job or open a new business.

They need to know the province is stable and not facing another election right away.

However, Coffin says they haven’t seen any will to collaborate from the Liberals as yet. She says they haven’t seen a whole lot of movement towards collaboration and they look forward to seeing that happen in the Fall as they prepare for the next budget.

Election Was a Message that Public Didn’t Like The Budget, says Crosbie

PC Leader Ches Crosbie says electing a minority was a message from the public that it didn’t like the budget, and priorities should be re-worked.

The budget passed unchanged yesterday, without the support of any PC member.

Crosbie says they offered to work with government collaboratively, but in order to do that, they felt they needed the same information available to cabinet, and government was unwilling to go that far.

To reach surplus by 2022-23, budget documents say there will needs to be a reduction in spending of $617-million.

Crosbie says the refusal to say how government will do that has been frustrating and another reason they couldn’t collaborate. He says they didn’t land on that number without analysis being done. They asked for it, and didn’t get it.